Among Pacific salmon released from gillnets on their way to spawning grounds, those entangled for the longest amount of time, especially females, were very likely to die before spawning. Fish that died earliest were in poorer health than survivors and showed greater activity of several infectious disease causing microbes.

Animal migrations are costly and are often characterized by high predation risk for individuals. Three of the most oft-assumed mechanisms for reducing risk for migrants are swamping predators with high densities, specific timing of migrations and increased body size. Assessing the relative importance of these mechanisms in reducing predation risk particularly for migrants is generally lacking due to the difficulties in tracking the fate of individuals and population-level characteristics simultaneously. We used acoustic telemetry to track migration behaviour and survival of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) smolts released over a wide range of conspecific outmigration densities in a river associated with poor survival. The landscape was indeed high risk; smolt survival was poor (˜68%) over 13·5 km of river examined even though migration was rapid (generally <48 h). Our results demonstrate that smolts largely employ swamping of predators to reduce predation risk. Increased densities of co-migrant conspecifics dramatically improved survival of smolts. The strong propensity for nocturnal migration resulted in smolts pausing downstream movements until the next nightfall, greatly increasing relative migration durations for smolts that could not traverse the study area in a single night. Smolt size did not appear to impact predation risk, potentially due to unique characteristics of the system or our inability to tag the entire size range of outmigrants. Movement behaviours were important in traversing this high-risk landscape and provide rare evidence for swamping to effectively reduce individual predation risk.

Microparasites play an important role in the demography, ecology and evolution of Pacific salmonids. As salmon stocks continue to decline and the impacts of global climate change on fish populations become apparent, a greater understanding of microparasites in wild salmon populations is warranted. We used high-throughput, quantitative PCR (HT-qRT-PCR) to rapidly screen 82 adult Chinook salmon from five geographically or genetically distinct groups (mostly returning to tributaries of the Fraser River) for 45 microparasite taxa. We detected 20 microparasite species, four of which have not previously been documented in Chinook salmon, and four of which have not been previously detected in any salmonids in the Fraser River. Comparisons of microparasite load to blood plasma variables revealed some positive associations between Flavobacterium psychrophilum, Cryptobia salmositica and Ceratonova shasta and physiological indices suggestive of morbidity. We include a comparison of our findings for each microparasite taxa with previous knowledge of its distribution in British Columbia.

Acute stressors are commonly experienced by wild animals but their effects on fitness rarely are studied in the natural environment. Billions of fish are captured and released annually around the globe across all fishing sectors (e.g., recreational, commercial, subsistence). Whatever the motivation, release often occurs under the assumption of post-release survival. Yet, capture by fisheries (hereafter "fisheries-capture") is likely the most severe acute stressor experienced in the animal's lifetime, which makes the problem of physiological recovery and survival of relevance to biology and conservation. Indeed, fisheries managers require accurate estimates of mortality to better account for total mortality from fishing, while fishers desire guidance on strategies for reducing mortality and maintaining the welfare of released fish, to maximize current and future opportunities for fishing. In partnership with stakeholders, our team has extensively studied the effects of catch-and-release on Pacific salmon in both marine and freshwater environments, using biotelemetry and physiological assessments in a combined laboratory-based and field-based approach. The emergent theme is that post-release rates of mortality are consistently context-specific and can be affected by a suite of interacting biotic and abiotic factors. The fishing gear used, location of a fishery, water temperature, and handling techniques employed by fishers each can dramatically affect survival of the salmon they release. Variation among individuals, co-migrating populations, and between sexes all seem to play a role in the response of fish to capture and in their subsequent survival, potentially driven by pre-capture pathogen-load, maturation states, and inter-individual variation in responsiveness to stress. Although some of these findings are fascinating from a biological perspective, they all create unresolved challenges for managers. We summarize our findings by highlighting the patterns that have emerged most consistently, and point to areas of uncertainty that require further research.

Global expansion of aquaculture and agriculture facilitates disease emergence and catalyzes transmission to sympatric wildlife populations. The health of wild salmon stocks critically concerns Indigenous peoples, commercial and recreational fishers, and the general public. Despite potential impact of viral pathogens such as Piscine orthoreovirus-1 (PRV-1) on endangered wild salmon populations, their epidemiology in wild fish populations remains obscure, as does the role of aquaculture in global and local spread. Our phylogeographic analyses of PRV-1 suggest that development of Atlantic salmon aquaculture facilitated spread from Europe to the North and South East Pacific. Phylogenetic analysis and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction surveillance further illuminate the circumstances of emergence of PRV-1 in the North East Pacific and provide strong evidence for Atlantic salmon aquaculture as a source of infection in wild Pacific salmon. PRV-1 is now an important infectious agent in critically endangered wild Pacific salmon populations, fueled by aquacultural transmission.

No abstract

The evolution of threespine sticklebacks in freshwater lakes constitutes a well-studied example of a phenotypic radiation that has produced numerous instances of parallel evolution, but the exact selective agents that drive these changes are not yet fully understood. We present a comparative study across 74 freshwater populations of threespine stickleback in Norway to test whether evolutionary changes in stickleback morphology are consistent with adaptations to physical parameters such as lake depth, lake area, lake perimeter and shoreline complexity, variables thought to reflect different habitats and feeding niches. Only weak indications of adaptation were found. Instead, populations seem to have diversified in phenotypic directions consistent with allometric scaling relationships. This indicates that evolutionary constraints may have played a role in structuring phenotypic variation across freshwater populations of stickleback. We also tested whether the number of lateral plates evolved in response to lake calcium levels, but found no evidence for this hypothesis.

Infectious disease dynamics of wild Pacific salmon are poorly understood and may play a prominent role in recent declines of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations. Multiple stressors influence migration success of adult salmon, such as rising river temperatures and capture and release by fisheries, and likely modulate infection development. To understand how these factors impact survival and migration behaviour of adult salmon in fresh water, we conducted simultaneous holding and telemetry studies with gillnet treatments and nonlethal biopsy. Laboratory fish were held and treated in either cool (9 °C) or warm (14 °C) water. High temperature reduced survival but did not amplify simulated gillnetting effects. Gillnetting reduced migration rate and distance traveled upriver and increased infection burdens, but had no effect on longevity. Heavy infections were associated with reduced longevity and faster migrations. Blood properties and immunity were associated with stressors, survival, and infections. These results improve our predictive capability regarding how stressors can reduce migration success and longevity of Pacific salmon, demonstrating multiple impacts of infections and adding to growing knowledge of disease dynamics in wild fish populations.